The court’s decision on Wednesday comes months after Sharif was “deemed unfit to hold public office” over corruption allegations and forced to step down, Pakistan’s Dawn news outlet reported.

A subsequent law, known as the Elections Act 2017, was passed by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party last year, which allowed Sharif to retake his post as party leader despite the charges against him.

In the decision, the court ruled someone disqualified under tenets of the Pakistani constitution cannot head a political party, Dawn reported.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to remove Sharif as party head from all relevant records, AFP news agency reported.

“As a result, all steps taken, all orders passed by Nawaz Sharif are also declared to be as if they had never been taken,” Nisar said, as reported by Reuters news agency.

Rising instability

Political analysts said the decision raises serious questions about political stability in Pakistan.

“It has created a serious crisis for [PML-N] … and it has also created uncertainties about the direction of [the] Pakistani political system,” analyst Hasan Askari told AFP.

Askari said Senate elections, scheduled for next month, may be postponed as a result of the court’s ruling.

The PML-N controls Pakistan’s lower house of parliament.

Winning control of the Senate would allow the party to change the constitution to make Sharif eligible to hold office again when the party runs in national elections, expected to be held later in 2018.

Raza Ahmad Rumi, an editor at the Daily Times Pakistan, said while the decision “was not unexpected”, it was “a miscalculation by [the] powers-that-be”.

“Nawaz Sharif is likely to gain more sympathy and his party more votes in the coming elections,” Rumi wrote on Twitter.

Meamwhile, members of PML-N accused the court of bias, with Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb saying the judiciary was “only targeting one person”, Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune reported.

A three-time prime minister, Sharif has denied allegations of corruption.

He has been accused of failing to declare monthly income amounting to more than $2,700 from a company owned by his son. He also appeared in an anti-corruption court last October to face separate corruption charges.__Al Jazeera

According to NDTV, three Indians have been jailed in Singapore for their involvement in sexual acts with a 13-year-old girl in 2016, a media report said today.

Gill Gurjant Singh, 25, and Surjeet Singh, 29, were each sentenced to 15 months in prison for the crime, The Straits Times reported.

Jugraj Singh, 33, was jailed for eight months for committing an indecent act on the Singaporean minor .

Offenders convicted of having sexual intercourse with a minor below 14 years old can be jailed for up to 20 years and fined or caned, according to the report.

All the three men are Indian construction workers, the report said.

They had met the girl in May 2016 in Little India, a precinct of shops, eateries, pubs, motels and hotels, where she was hanging out with her friends, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jesintha Veijayaratnam said.

The girl’s mother approached the police after which a complaint was registered.__The Nation

BRUSSELS: The EU’s Committee on Foreign Affairs has backed moves to cut off sources of terrorism financing.

It comes amid a push to prevent attacks and stem the flow of cash, honing in on money laundering and organised crime.

A European Parliament vote is expected next month.

“What we want is to create means, with the actual bodies and institutions in order to give them facilities to investigate and to follow what could be the channels of financing micro terrorism,” explained Spanish MEP Javier Nart, from the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

“There is a major point is to create a platform where intelligent services of Europe will find, and share knowledge and data.”

The European Counter Terrorism Centre is already up and running, to strengthen the EU’s response.

It uses two arms – a tracking programme and intelligence units – to share intelligence and knowledge on financing.

According to Europol data, up to 40 percent of terror plots are believed to be at least partly funded through crime, including drugs, robberies and fraud.

One expert is raising the alarm over current EU laws relating to the movement of funds.

“The European laws allow the transfer of funds of up to 10,000 euros a month,” said Brahim Laitouss, an Associate Professor at the University of Antwerp.

“We have seen, therefore, that cells have carried out terrorist operations in Europe, with little financial means. They rented cars, and bought raw materials. They have manufactured explosives for committing terrorist acts.”

But cracking down on terrorism is not just about money, authorities know they also have to tackle those responsible for radicalisation – whether that’s in mosques, prisons or across social networks.__EuroNews

NICOSIA: Greek Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades urged Turkey on Feb. 21 to lift its blockade of offshore gas exploration that would benefit both the Greek and Turkish Cypriots if the island is reunited.

“The rhetoric by Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots is unjustified and unfounded, and it does not serve the best interests of the Cypriot people… The planning of the Republic of [Greek] Cyprus in the field of energy will proceed,” Anastasiades said in a statement.

“I publicly call on Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot community to immediately respond to my call to return to the negotiating table, provided this is preceded by the termination of the violation of the sovereign rights” of Greek Cyprus in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), he said.

Anastasiades said the island’s untapped energy riches belonged to the state and would be shared with the Turkish Cypriots once the island was reunified.

“Our goal is to fully explore Cyprus’s hydrocarbon potential, in the best terms possible, so as to maximize the benefits for all the people of Cyprus,” he said.

Greek Cyprus is embroiled in a standoff with Turkish warships blocking an Italian drillship from exploring for gas in the divided island’s politically sensitive waters.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has warned foreign energy companies not to “overstep the mark” in the Mediterranean after Turkey’s warships blocked the Italian vessel.

The standoff over exploiting energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean risks further complicates stalled efforts to reunify Cyprus following the collapse of U.N.-brokered peace talks last year.

Italy’s energy giant ENI said its ship had been ordered to stop by Turkish ships earlier this month over “military activities in the destination area” as it was on course to start exploring in block 3 of EEZ.__Hurriyet

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau, has announced it will reopen a Rs 2 billion corruption case against four retired senior army officers, including a former ISI chief.

The officers are accused of transferring tens of hundreds of acres of prime railway land in Lahore at very low rates to a Malaysian firm during Gen Pervez Musharraf’s regime in 2001. The land was then used for the development of the Royal Palms Gold and Country Club golf course.

The move comes a week after the Islamabad high court ruled that retired military officers could not hide behind the army’s accountability process.

Among those involved are retired Lt Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi, who served as the director general of the ISI and retired Lt Gen Saeed Uz Zafar, a former Peshawar corps commander. A NAB spokesman said: “The meeting authorised filing of a (case)… for misuse of authority and causing over Rs2 billion losses to national exchequer.”

On September 14, 2012, the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly had called for the cancellation of the controversial agreement. It recommended fresh bidding for the land and called for strict disciplinary action against the former officers who had endorsed the agreement.

The officers were summoned by the NAB to record their statements but the case was then put into cold storage due to the bureau’s reluctance to act against the military.

On the special committee’s recommendations, the Federal Investigation Agency started a separate investigation, and its report said 141 acres had been allotted at a nominal price, causing a loss of Rs 4.82 billion to the national exchequer.__Hindustan Times

She didn’t mention corruption in a media statement issued after meeting officials.

Reassurances given

Antonio Tajani, European Parliament President, commented: “I asked the Romanian government to continue with conviction the process of reforms supposed to enhance the rule of law, the fight against corruption, transparency and competitiveness. I have received from the prime minister reassuring answers and an availability to cooperate with the European Parliament.”

But one German MEP told Euronews that she’s not seen any backing down by the Romanian government, since being warned by the EU.

Reforms would ‘legalise corruption’

“I am very worried about the situation in Romania because the laws changes that are partly proposed and partly already voted, they would put a serious threat to tackling corruption in Romania, would basically legalise corruption and would make it very difficult for the reformed justice system to go after corrupt people,” said Ska Keller, from the Group of the Greens.

Thousands of Romanians have protested against the judicial overhaul. And they’ll no doubt have been further angered by the prime minister’s recent refusal to fire a key adviser, given a prison sentence for corruption and money-laundering.__EuroNews

MANAMA: A court in Bahrain on Wednesday sentenced a prominent activist to five years in prison over tweets, criticising the Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen and alleging torture at a prison in his country.

The case against Nabeel Rajab, a major figure in the island nation’s 2011 Arab Spring protests, has been widely criticised by the global community.

Rajab previously had been sentenced to two years in prison over television interviews he gave that included criticisms of Bahrain, an island off Saudi Arabia that’s home to the United States Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Rajab has been detained since June 2016 as part of a wide crackdown on all dissent in Bahrain. He has been hospitalised several times during his incarceration over heart problems and ulcers.__Dawn.com

MANILA: Foreign Islamic State fighters forced out of Syria and Iraq have been arriving in the philippines with the intent of recruiting, and they have plans to attack two Philippine towns, the head of the country’s largest Muslim rebel group said on Tuesday.

More than 1,100 people were killed last year when pro-Islamic State militants attacked and held the Philippine city of Marawi for five months, leading to massive destruction across the scenic lakeside town.

That could happen in other cities if Congress fails to pass a law to allow Muslims in the southern philippines to run their own affairs, according to Ebrahim Murad, leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist group which signed a peace deal with the government in return for greater autonomy.

“Based on our own intelligence information, foreign fighters who were displaced from the middle east continued to enter into our porous borders and may be planning to take two southern cities – Iligan and Cotabato,” Murad said.

The two cities are 38 km (24 miles) and 265 km (165 miles) respectively from Marawi.

Murad said fighters from Indonesia, Malaysia, and the middle east were known to have entered the philippines , including a Middle Eastern man holding a Canadian passport.

That man went to a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, notorious for kidnapping and piracy, Murad said.

Murad said militants had been recruiting fighters in remote Muslim communities, exploiting delays in the passage of legislation aimed at addressing long-standing Muslim grievances, the Bangsamoro Basic law (BBL).

“These extremists are going into madrasas, teaching young Muslims their own version of the Koran, and some enter local universities to influence students, planting the seeds of hatred and violence,” he said.

Such a scenario would be a major headache for the military, which is fighting on multiple fronts on the southern island of Mindanao to defeat home-grown Islamic State loyalists, bandits and communist insurgents.

Mindanao is under martial law.

The military has said remnants of the militant alliance that occupied Marawi were trying to regroup and were using cash and gold looted from Marawi to recruit.

Murad’s statement echoed those of President Rodrigo Duterte, who last month urged lawmakers to pass the BBL, or face re-igniting war with separatists after two decades of peace.

“We cannot decisively win the war against extremism if we cannot win the peace in the halls of Congress,” Murad said.__The Nation

MADRID: Catalan pro-independence politician Anna Gabriel has said she will not go before a court in Madrid this week.

Speaking from Switzerland, she said she was wanted for political reasons and did not think her trial would be fair.

She is due to appear before a Supreme Court judge on Wednesday over her role in Catalonia’s independence referendum, which was deemed illegal by Madrid.

Several other pro-independence politicians have been imprisoned in connection with October’s referendum.

Others, including the sacked regional President Carles Puigdemont, are in self-imposed exile in Brussels.

“I’m wanted for my political activities and the government press has already declared me guilty.

“As I wouldn’t get a fair trial at home, I looked for a country that could protect my rights.

“I will be more useful to my movement free than behind bars.”

Ms Gabriel is a member of the left-wing separatist party Popular Unity (CUP) and is reported to be in Geneva with other party members. The party’s lawyer has said the Supreme Court will be informed in writing of her decision not to attend.

She says she is prepared to seek political asylum in Switzerland if she is unable to work there because of an extradition request.

Her Swiss lawyer, Olivier Peter, says an extradition request would be illegal because her trial is on political grounds.

The Supreme Court has not yet commented.

Ms Gabriel is one of several Catalan politicians called to appear in court this week, facing possible charges of sedition and rebellion.

Pro-independence parties called a referendum on the issue in October, which was met with a heavy police crackdown and attracted global attention. The Spanish government in Madrid sacked the Catalan regional government and called new elections, but pro-independence parties returned with a slim majority.

It is the country’s biggest political crisis since democracy was restored in 1975.__BBC

BRUSSELS: His hiring by US investment bank Goldman Sachs in 2016 caused uproar. Now, former European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is back in the spotlight again.

A letter has just been made public confirming that he met alone with current Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen in a hotel in Brussels back in October, during which they “mostly discussed trade and defence matters.”

“Twenty-four hours after this meeting, Vice President Katainen published, in accordance with procedures and transparency, details of this meeting,” Margaritis Schinas, Chief Spokesperson for the European Commission, told reporters.

“This meeting took place 36 months after the departure of the former president, with the limit being 18 months at that time.”

No documents relating to meeting

In the letter, to the Corporate Europe Observatory, which looks at lobbying, Katainen says: “I usually do not take notes in meetings and I did not do so at this meeting either. For these reasons, there are no documents regarding this event.”

The Observatory says the way the meeting was held raises questions.

“President Juncker issued guidelines to every EU Commission employee, which obviously in our interpretation must include commissioners, that they must handle Barroso as a lobbyist,” the Observatory’s Margarida Silva told Euronews.

“And that means that you have to be careful about the reputation of the institutions when you do this. The way that Katainen did this meeting, we don’t think it was very careful, meeting him in a hotel, alone.”

A new ethical code of conduct came into force last month. It means outgoing European Commission members now have to wait two years – instead of 18 months – before taking up new employment..__EuroNews